Passover Festival

John 12:50-13:1 – I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

John 14:30-31 – I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. “Come now; let us leave.

Exodus 12:11,13,21 – This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover…The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt…Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.

John 10:11 – “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

John 15:13 – Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Application:

• ·         Jesus had stressed the importance of His followers being obedient, and He set the example.
• ·         Passover was explained to mean that the Lord would “pass over” and not destroy the occupants of houses that were under the sign of the blood.
• ·         Just as the plagues were miraculous signs of judgment on the pharaoh and His people, so the Lord’s “passing over” the Israelites who placed themselves under the sign of blood was a pledge of God’s mercy.
• ·         Christ is “our Passover lamb”, sacrificed “once for all” for us.
• ·         Shepherds might risk danger for their sheep, but they expected to come through alive. Jesus said that the good shepherd is willing to die for His sheep.
• ·         Christ’s love was demonstrated not only in His words but also in His sacrificial death.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV